In Java 8, unsigned long support was introduced. Still, these are typical longs, but the sign doesn't affect adding and subtracting. For dividing and comparing, you have dedicated methods in Long. Also, you can do the following:
long l1 = Long.parseUnsignedLong("12345678901234567890");
String l1Str = Long.toUnsignedString(l1)
BigInteger is a bit different. It can keep huge numbers. It stores them as int[] and supports arithmetic.
In Java 8, unsigned long support was introduced. Still, these are typical longs, but the sign doesn't affect adding and subtracting. For dividing and comparing, you have dedicated methods in Long. Also, you can do the following:
long l1 = Long.parseUnsignedLong("12345678901234567890");
String l1Str = Long.toUnsignedString(l1)
BigInteger is a bit different. It can keep huge numbers. It stores them as int[] and supports arithmetic.
Although Java has no unsigned long type, you can treat signed 64-bit two's-complement integers (i.e. long values) as unsigned if you are careful about it.
Many primitive integer operations are sign agnostic for two's-complement representations. For example, you can use Java primitive addition, subtraction and multiplication on an unsigned number represented as a long, and get the "right" answer.
For other operations such as division and comparison, the Long class provides method like divideUnsigned and compareUnsigned that will give the correct results for unsigned numbers represented as long values.
The Long methods supporting unsigned operations were added in Java 8. Prior to that, you could use 3rd-party libraries to achieve the same effect. For example, the static methods in the Guava UnsignedLongs class.
Is
BigIntegerthe signed long that Java supports?
BigInteger would be another way to represent integer values greater that Long.MAX_VALUE. But BigInteger is a heavy-weight class. It is unnecessary if your numbers all fall within the range 0 to 264 - 1 (inclusive).
Update – Java 8 can treat signed int & long as if unsigned
In Java, the primitive integer data types (byte, short, int, and long) are signed (positive or negative).
As of Java 8 both int and long can be treated explicitly as if they are unsigned. Officially a feature now, but kind of a hack nonetheless. Some may find it useful in certain limited circumstances. See the Java Tutorial.
int: By default, the int data type is a 32-bit signed two's complement integer, which has a minimum value of -2³¹ and a maximum value of 2³¹-1. In Java SE 8 and later, you can use the int data type to represent an unsigned 32-bit integer, which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 2³²-1. Use the Integer class to use int data type as an unsigned integer. See the section The Number Classes for more information. Static methods like compareUnsigned, divideUnsigned etc have been added to the
Integerclass to support the arithmetic operations for unsigned integers.long: The long data type is a 64-bit two's complement integer. The signed long has a minimum value of -2⁶³ and a maximum value of 2⁶³-1. In Java SE 8 and later, you can use the long data type to represent an unsigned 64-bit long, which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 2⁶⁴-1. The unsigned long has a minimum value of 0 and maximum value of 2⁶⁴-1. Use this data type when you need a range of values wider than those provided by int. The
Longclass also contains methods like compareUnsigned, divideUnsigned etc to support arithmetic operations for unsigned long.
I am not necessarily recommending this approach. I’m merely making you aware of the option.
Short answer, there's no unsigned data type in java. long in C is 32-bit on 32-bit systems, but java's long is 64-bit, so you can use that for replacement (at least it would solve the overflow problem). If you need even wider integers, use BigInteger class.
Well, even in Java 8, long and int are still signed, only some methods treat them as if they were unsigned. If you want to write unsigned long literal like that, you can do
Copystatic long values = Long.parseUnsignedLong("18446744073709551615");
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(values); // -1
System.out.println(Long.toUnsignedString(values)); // 18446744073709551615
}
Per the documentation you posted, and this blog post - there's no difference when declaring the primitive between an unsigned int/long and a signed one. The "new support" is the addition of the static methods in the Integer and Long classes, e.g. Integer.divideUnsigned. If you're not using those methods, your "unsigned" long above 2^63-1 is just a plain old long with a negative value.
From a quick skim, it doesn't look like there's a way to declare integer constants in the range outside of +/- 2^31-1, or +/- 2^63-1 for longs. You would have to manually compute the negative value corresponding to your out-of-range positive value.
That method can't return true. That's the point of Long.MAX_VALUE. It would be really confusing if its name were... false. Then it should be just called Long.SOME_FAIRLY_LARGE_VALUE and have literally zero reasonable uses. Just use Android's isUserAGoat, or you may roll your own function that always returns false.
Note that a long in memory takes a fixed number of bytes. From Oracle:
long: The long data type is a 64-bit signed two's complement integer. It has a minimum value of -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 and a maximum value of 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (inclusive). Use this data type when you need a range of values wider than those provided by int.
As you may know from basic computer science or discrete math, there are 2^64 possible values for a long, since it is 64 bits. And as you know from discrete math or number theory or common sense, if there's only finitely many possibilities, one of them has to be the largest. That would be Long.MAX_VALUE. So you are asking something similar to "is there an integer that's >0 and < 1?" Mathematically nonsensical.
If you actually need this for something for real then use BigInteger class.
You can't. If you have a method called isBiggerThanMaxLong(long) it should always return false.
If you were to increment the bits of Long.MAX_VALUE, the next value should be Long.MIN_VALUE. Read up on twos-complement and that should tell you why.